call toll-free (925) 835-7500
Free Case Evaluation

California's Basic Speed Law

About halway through the first year of law school I recognized that "reasonable" was the default setting for most things in the law. You have to make a "reasonable" effort to serve a complaint on someone; the government needs a "reasonable" basis for stopping your car; you must take "reasonable" steps to meet your contractual obligations. It is the same with driving. California's basic speed law (Calfirornia Vehicle Code 22350) uses a "reasonable" test:

No person shall drive a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than is reasonable or prudent having due regard for weather, visibility, the traffic on, and the surface and width of, the highway, and in no event at a speed which endangers the safety of persons or property.

What is reasonable during daylight hours may be unreasonable after dark. What speed is reasonable during dry weather may be patently dangerous - and therefore unreasonable - during a raing storm.

I am reminded of the his when I read the tragic story of a one-car collision in Danville that left the driver and one passenger in the hospital and the a second passenger dead. The car apparently spun out of control and struck a tree. More on that story here.

These things simply do not happen without speed. So if you are driving fast enough to spin out and hit a tree, chances are you were not driving at a reasonable speed.

Pete Clancy is an Oakland personal injury attorney.